ANGLEUR, BELGIUM (AFP) - It could take months to clear after the worst floods in Belgium's modern history, and some local landmarks in the Liege suburb of Angleur may never be the same again.
The clouds were clearing on Saturday (July 17) two days after a vast torrent of muddy water ripped through the area, throwing cars aside and hitting stores and schools.
But the future of the neighborhood, after what Prime Minister Alexander de Croo has called an unprecedented disaster, is not sunny.
"We are probably still going to discover more catastrophic situations," said Christine Defraigne, a senior Liรจge official, as police went door to door and the official death toll rose.
Angleur is located at the southeastern end of Belgium's fourth-largest city, near where the river Ourthe plunges into the mighty Meuse, known as Maas when it reaches downstream Dutch territory, and drains a large part of the southern hills. .
The region's narrow valleys are densely populated and built up, so they were soon inundated by a week of heavy rains, which experts have linked to the global climate crisis.
Questions will be asked about Belgium's readiness, meteorologists' warnings appear to have gone unheeded and the waters were already high when Liege ordered but did not impose a partial evacuation.
But the citizens of Angleur have more immediate concerns.
At the local nursery, Sophie Djokalaj is about to cry. After a year of disruption from the coronavirus, she was eager to welcome her class of two- to four-year-olds in September.
"There is a lot of work. I hope we can open after the summer," she sighed, as her daughter and husband helped her start the daunting cleanup.
The pink and green walls are splattered with mud, the shelves and desks are turned upside down in the hallways, and the toys lie strewn in the rubble.
On the main street, the cranes are removing the wrecked cars. Huge holes have been cut under the sidewalks, now cordoned off behind orange and white warning barriers.
"Everything is ruined," said Olivier Saelen, 44, pointing to the mud that has turned his front room into a swampy bed.
"The water rose in just 15 minutes, but it will take weeks to fix things," he said, before philosophically pointing out: "Still, people have died, so losing furniture is not the worst."
Two bodies have already been recovered in Angleur, and not all are accounted for.
"Since yesterday, all we've heard is sirens and helicopters. Like we need all of this, after the pandemic," said Angela Celliere, 60, cleaning standing water from her porch.
Fuel stink
Piles of dilapidated furniture bow sadly in front of houses, and heating oil seeping into flooded basements and onto the street fills the air with the stench of diesel.
City Librarian Aurelie Nisot was pulling out piles of wet-swollen, mud-stained books.
"We have never seen anything like this," he said. "A little water in the cellars, but this is unique."
A high-ground grocery store was able to open Saturday, but many local business owners were on the brink of despair.
John Theunis runs Studio 87 hair salon, which owes its vintage style to carefully selected furniture.
"It had folding chairs from a 1950s cinema in Liรจge and a seat from the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels," the 33-year-old told AFP. "What a waste."
